The Obsidian Lords
The Obsidian Lords are currently the main powerhouse faction in the Screaming Vortex and rule form their homeworld Arcem. They rose to power after resisting an incursion of half the chapter of the dreaded Dark Angels on their planet Arcem. It is unknown why the Dark Angels targeted the warband at the time, only that they were unsuccessful at wiping out the mountain fortress city Castellum, only engaging in urban warfare once the Angels of Death swept aside the planet's meagre fleet defences and bombarded the city with multiple lance strikes, striking ineffectually against the sturdy mountainside range and void shields. Over the course of little under a month the Dark Angels systematically gained ground throughout the underground streets, but the warlord of Obsidian Lords, Black Tyrant Zharak, had specifically built the city to hold out against even half a chapter of Space Marines and personally isolated several of the Company Captains and executed them in single combat while the rest of his army dedicated the loyalists at easily defensible locations. Eventually the might of the Dark Angels managed to sweep through and broke into the main citadel at the heart of the city. At that crucial moment, Lord Zharak played his trump card and the Dark Angel fleet in orbit was suddenly surrounded by the Obsidian Lords allies who had been informed of the imminent siege and had gathered in full force for this moment for to crush the Space Marines of the First Legion. Suddenly the Dark Angels retreat paths had been severed, and engaged in a heroic last stand that ended with their inevitable deaths. Acquiring both the gene-seed of half a chapter and their precious technology quickly saw to the Obsidian Lord's rise in power and assimilated many lesser warbands of the Screaming Vortex. With such power they launched a Black Crusade that devastated the Calixis Sector and the Jericho Reach. Now they mainly consolidate power within the Obsidian Empire and act as supplemental troops for other aspiring warbands (for those that can afford it) sponsoring one side of a conflict for technology, manpower, or most often to obtain the head of an arrogant warlord who has spurned the Obsidian Lords. Most of them are currently preparing to time another Black Crusade in the next few decades alongside Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade, distracting the Imperium and forcing them to defend the Calixis Sector while the main war rages around the Eye of Terror. The warband have good standings with the surrounding Dark Forges and have their own Dark Magos Ordikai who has been credited to creating most of the Obsidian Lords technological innovations. The current chain of planets they hold is part of the "Obsidian Empire", taken from occasional raids led by Chaos Champions for prestige. It is from these planets that the Obsidian Lords can call upon the vast resources they require to maintain their positions in the Screaming Vortex. However the amount of planets fluctuates frequently on it's borders as rival warbands seek to take planets for their own gain and glory. Warband Beliefs For a Chaos Warband, the Obsidian Lords are more organized and has rough command structure loosely based off of the old Space Marine Legions. Zharak commands the entirety of his Legion and appoints five Obsidian Praetors that are in charge of their respective organizations. While they do tithe the worlds they have conquered to supplement their sizable human force, they make practice of creating genetically altered humans crudely based off of the Space Marine template, and when compared to normal humans they are stronger, faster, and intellectually sharper. While they consider themselves superior to naturally born humans and are often appointed as sergeants, they are ultimately pale imitations of true Chaos Space Marines, which inevitably causes internal conflicts between the two groups. Obsidian Legionnaires place a heavy emphasis on martial honour and often look upon humans with disdain, making them poor diplomats against arrogant humans who are far too self absorbed in their personal power. Brutal and ruthless, they consider themselves superior to all other beings in the galaxy and continually seek conflict against loyalist forces to further their power within the Companies and in the eyes of the Dark Gods. With such pride they eschew to use of summoning daemons to help them in battle, rather relying on their own strength to carry them to victory than to rely on asking for aid from their Patrons. After each engagement it is a common practice to take trophies of the battle to adorn their armour to signify their battle experience. When they conquer a new world in real-space, Obsidian Lord Sorcerers quickly enact a ritual that whisks away the planet into the Screaming Vortex, expanding their black empire. Warband Tactics The Obsidian Lords were founded by the former Sons of Horus member Lord Zharak, and some of their strategies reflect the same combat doctrine the XVIth Legion had. Their preferred tendencies are indeed the same, when on the offensive they use sudden orbital bombardments usually during the night or at the break of dawn to catch their enemies off guard with overwhelming savagery and violence, and once deployed favour multiple lightning fast strikes to pressure the enemy. These attacks would be sharp but brief, and the intervals between each assault was launched was shorter each advance to disrupt the enemy defences and secure forward outposts to provide support from. Once the pressure on the defenders was at its highest the commander will lead a final bloody offensive, gather the most capable of his fighters to spearhead towards the enemy's own leader. However the Obsidian Lords are also well versed in the art of siege combat against tenacious foes, although it is mainly handled by the Unholy Pact. Commencing the battle with sustained orbital bombardment, the first wave of gunships and bomber crafts will saturate landing zones and launch raids on enemy supply lines in efforts to demoralize and weaken the enemy before any troops make landfall. The second wave consists of heavily defended construction craft, heavy transports and bulk freighters, carrying supplies, prefabricated fortifications, heavy machinery and construction personnel to the surface. Immediately the second wave will launch intense artillery fire to compound the previous orbital strikes to further scatter any defenders. Crews from transport freighters then disembark and begin construction on walled trenches, bunkers, living quarters and artillery positions, the latter of which are then filled by the massive weapons brought in by the artillery ships. The third wave consists entirely of troop transports filled with lesser troops alongside strategic drop pod assaults by the Dark Vanguard. Once victory has been achieved the siege fortifications are re-engineered to become layered defences for the conquered city. Warband Organization Unlike other Chaos warbands the Obsidian Lords keep a highly regimented legion and are all loyal the five Obsidian Praetors, who have proven themselves strong enough lead a contingent of the Obsidian Lords armies, and all answer to the Obsidian King. The Dark Vanguard is composed of genetically manipulated, lightly power armoured clone troopers equipped with standard bolters and combat shields backed up by frontline vehicles. While they were once the core force of the Obsidian Lords they have been delegated to supplement their Legionnaires lack of numbers in combat or to provide extra power to Unholy Pact forces, but most importantly to defend the Obsidian Lords' domains. They were founded initially as a response to the Dark Angel threat when Zharak was in need of troops who could feasibly stand against their superhuman counterparts. The Unholy Pact is the mainstay of the Obsidian Lords and in many ways acts as the Imperial Guard does, being the first force to engage their enemies across multiple planets, and the first to be slaughtered. Keeping track of such a vast force is a staggering task and as such multiple commanders take charge of their own regiments, sizing around 5000-10,000 men each. Each commander is given autonomous control of his regiment to act as he pleases as long as it is within the interests of the Legion as a whole. More than half of the Unholy Pact forces are waging war against Imperial forces within the Spiral Front, terrorizing the Calixis Sector, or are sent out on expeditions into the Koronus Expanse to search for valuable secrets. The rest are within the Screaming Vortex skirmishing against other warbands that will heed the call to form the occasional crusade against opposing warbands to cull the weak on both sides. Plans to assault the Jericho Reach are deemed inefficient as the current powerhouses contesting that area of space are extremely strong, and would require an immense drain on the Obsidian Lords' resources, as conquering the Calixis Sector is their main priority. The Fell Apothecary is the smallest but one the most important of the four organizations and can be compared to the Sisters Hospitaller and the Space Marine Apothecaries. Their official role is to provide backfield medical care to the Unholy Pact and Dark Vanguard, but most importantly to attend to fallen Legionnaires. They are also tasked to create maintain the creation of the Dark Vanguard and Legionnaire forces on Arcem's genetic facilities. Obsidian Legionnaires are main power of the Obsidian Lords is indisputably their outstanding numbers of Chaos Space Marines, created from both the gene-seed of the fallen Dark Angels and assimilation of other Marine warbands, although there are rumours that they have unlocked the secrets of creating more gene-seed from the infamous Fabius Bile. They are split into five Companies that average out to around 1000 members each led by an Aspiring Champion and are often attack Imperial-held worlds to corrupt and despoil across the galaxy. The most veteran of the Obsidian Lords are the Blackblades, the Terminator elite who wield great null-blades that psykers find intolerable to be around and are fond of both retrofitted Havoc Launchers and wrist-mounted twin-linked bolters. They are seen during the final stages of the battle to assault the enemy's command in decapitating strike, or are tasked to hunt unruly sorcerers that do not cooperate with the wishes of their Lord. Estimated Numbers Unholy Pact: 100,000,000 - 2,000,000,000 plus additional hundreds of millions to be drawn into service Dark Vanguard: 1,000,000 Fell Apothecary: 50,000 Legionnaires: 20,000 Blackblade Terminators: 150 Tyrant Sisterhood: 50 Category:Setting Category:40K